The effect of the presence of a peer adolescent mediator and the amount of verbal praising on the sorting behavior of preschool retarded children

Four preschool children were asked to perform a black-white square sorting task under conditions in which an adolescent mediator was absent, present but nonverbal, present and verbally prompting and praising the child, and present but nonverbal with the experimenter increasing his normal output of praise and prompts by the mean frequency of adolescent verbalizations. The experimenter was present and verbal in all conditions. None of the experimental conditions produced significantly superior square sorting behavior than the others. However, the highest number of squares sorted over all subjects occurred when the adolescent was present and verbal along with the experimenter. The second highest number of squares sorted overall occurred when the same amount of prompts and praises, given previously by both the mediators and experimenter, were given only by the experimenter with mediators present but nonverbal. The results point out the importance of overall rates of prompts and praises, independent of whether they are given by an adolescent mediator or by the experimenter. The need for further research concerning the details of mediator and student interactions was noted